Feb 10
If you have, a smartphone that you need to get more runtime out of, Mugen Power is a good place to look. The company makes extended run time batteries and … Continue reading
Feb 09
Whenever a particular device is about to roll out officially, you can be very sure that there will be leaks which appear as part of the equation. After all, the proliferation of smartphones with high resolution cameras have also done their bit to encourage opportunities to introduce spyshots, although most of the time, these leaked shots tend to be blurry. Here is another screenshot of the Sony Xperia Sirius D6503 – not of the phone, actually, but rather, the 4K video app, where the source also points to a Timeshift video app and the Creative Effect camera app. These features also do seem to be part of the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update that will arrive on the Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact as well as Xperia Z Ultra as a sidenote, and this same version of the Android operating system too, is tipped to appear on the Xperia Sirius D6503 when it arrives.
Sony Xperia Sirius D6503 Screenshots Leaked original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 08
The PlayStation. The Walkman. The Trinitron. The transistor radio. All icons in Sony’s storied history from an era when the Japanese giants still roamed the earth. The Sony of today is not like the Sony of yesterday. For every memorable blockbuster, there’s an infamous flub: The late embrace of MP3, losing its hold on the digital imaging market and of course, failing to attract adoption to Betamax, UMD, MemoryStick, and endless other formats and systems.
The Sony of today is a bloated industrial machine barely holding together. It’s worn out and slowed to a crawl. The once innovative company now follows instead of leads. It’s playing catch-up instead of breaking new ground. But things are changing.
The Sony of tomorrow is looking leaner than ever. It doesn’t look like the Sony of old with total market dominance, but for the first time in ages, Sony is becoming a competitor.
Sony’s harsh reaction to bloat is not the exception throughout the electronics world. HP is being crushed under its own weight. Samsung makes everything from semiconductors to home appliances to 50 ton war machines. Dell is shedding employees as it streamlines the only thing you get from a brand name PC these days – service.
During the 1980s, after the launch of the Walkman and Trinitron, the market crashed. Sony was in crisis. But it weathered the storm, and as most companies that survive global recessions, emerged stronger than ever. Co-founder Akio Morita took the reins in 1989 and set about to diversify Sony’s business, likely as a shelter against future crashes. It was under Morita that Sony’s brand took a hit. New SKUs flooded the market as Sony grew. His venture into producing movies stumbled for a few years. The Sony name no longer held the same cachet it once did.
Sony grew during these years, but not in a way that set it up for future dominance.
Sir Howard Stringer took over the company in 2005. He was the first foreigner to take over the Japanese company. Attempting to tighten the belt of the bulging company, he cut 9,000 jobs under his tenure. When Kazuo Hirai succeeded Stringer in 2012, Sony’s brand was in tatters. Once holding over 20 percent of the digital imaging market, it had slipped to around 5%. Mobile was the future and at that time Sony was not correctly positioned in the market. Their events were strange amalgams of star watching (they’d trot out Will Smith and Tom Hanks and other greats at CES just to wake up journalists during their interminable presentations) and ham-handedness.
Kaz quickly set to reinvent Sony by focusing the company on mobile, imaging and gaming. This ambitious strategy notably excluded some of Sony’s older strengths including TVs and home entertainment. Kaz also quickly set out to cut the company’s headcount, and during his first two years at the helm he eliminated at least 12,000 employees. On the heels of a disastrous financial forecast, Sony announced this week intentions to cut another 5,000.
In late 2012 Sony killed its venture with Ericsson which had yet to acquire a competitive share of the mobile market. Sony announced the PS4 in early 2013, which saw a blockbuster launch later that year. Sony also offloaded Gracenote two days before Christmas 2013. In the early days of 2014, Sony sold its PC business, exited the ebook market and repositioned its TV division after 10 years of losses.
Just this week Sony Corp. unexpectedly forecasted a $1.1 billion annual loss. Some investors and analysts have requested Sony completely leave the consumer electronics market, yet the company stands by its efforts in mobile, imaging, and games.
Give Sony credit. Over the last few years, Sony has released notable cell phones, cameras and gaming advancements. The company states that it has seen a significant increase in sales of smartphones. Sony is currently the third largest camera marker after Canon and Nikon and its recent photo products are stunning. Then there’s the PS4, which launched to blockbuster numbers and is currently riding high on consumer sentiment.
Sony still has cutting to do. The company is forecasting another $1.1 billion loss in 2014. It’s clear Kaz and Co. are willing to make the hard call and cut off underperforming divisions. But can they do it fast enough? There are still a gazillion SKUs sold under the Sony brand. With the right focus, the Sony of tomorrow could be as strong as the Sony of the past, but that takes dedication, a desire to slice and dice accreted business units, and a lot of vision.
Sony had all of that, long ago. Can it get it back?
Feb 07
Sony had recently announced that they would be selling off their VAIO PC division to a Japanese investment firm who would continue producing VAIO computers, except that its availability would be limited to Japan at the moment. Considering that the VAIO PC division was pretty much the only division in Sony that ran Microsoft’s Windows platform, does that mean that Sony is done with Windows completely? Well yes and no. Speaking in Tokyo, Sony’s CEO Kazuo Hirai confirmed (via ASCII) that Windows for PC is not part of Sony’s future, but the good news is that they might not discount Windows for mobile entirely.
“Windows products will go to the new company,” he said, and at the same time reaffirmed Sony’s commitment to mobile, such as smartphones and tablets. “In the mobile arena, we decided that it is essential now to concentrate on smartphones and tablets.” Hirai goes on to state that “Microsoft has various OSes, including mobile. So, as Sony, we will consider new product development going forward,” hinting that Sony could consider the Windows Phone platform in the future. Assuming we are reading in between the lines correctly, this seems to corroborate the rumors that Sony could be looking to develop a Windows Phone handset (or handsets) for 2014.
Sony Hints At Possible Windows Phone Device original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 07
This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Sony Vaio, Samsung Galaxy S5, And Wearables?
Posted in: Today's Chili
Sony’s Vaio PC business is no more, with the company confirming reports that it will sell the PC division.
But a forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 will soon arrive and comfort you during this very difficult time. After all, it’s smartphone season with MWC right around the corner.
We discuss all this and more on this week’s episode of the TC Gadgets Podcast, featuring John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, Natasha Lomas and Darrell Etherington.
Enjoy!
We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here.
Click here to download an MP3 of this show.
You can subscribe to the show via RSS.
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Intro Music by Rick Barr.
Feb 06
Sony recently revealed plans to sell its VAIO PC business to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) in the near future. Following this, the company revealed today a downgraded forecast for the … Continue reading
Feb 06
Sony recently announced they would be selling off the VAIO brand, however it seems that is not the only change in the works. A more recent announcement deals with Sony’s … Continue reading
Feb 06
Sony is not a company that is swimming in money these days, as the Japanese company has been going through the numbers and making the necessary adjustments in disposing off some of their assets to survive in the years ahead. Hence, it was not surprising to hear that the cost-cutting measures would also enter the e-reader business territory. According to Sony, they will be closing down their Reader store over in the U.S. and Canada sometime in “late March”, where the entire slew of Reader accounts, library content included, would be migrated over to Kobo’s platform in that period of time. Current users have nothing to lose sleep over though, since Sony touts that the entire migration process will be a painless affair. Those who are affected by this migration process will be on the receiving end of an e-mail walkthrough, while this particular deal would also see the Kobo app arrive pre-loaded on select Xperia devices.
Kobo Chosen To Be Sony’s Choice Of eBookstore For The Sony Reader original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Feb 06
If you are one of the remaining Sony e-reader customers we have good news for you. Kobo will take over the Sony Reader Store at the end of March for U.S. and Canadian customers.
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Feb 06
Sony Leaving The E-Book Business Behind, Will Transition Accounts And Purchases To Kobo
Posted in: Today's Chili
Sony is calling it quits in the e-book platform market, the company announced today (via Engadget). The move isn’t entirely unexpected: Sony has always occupied a relatively small portion of the market compared to the big kid on the block Amazon. And in light of recent revenue figures, and the decision to cut the much more recognizable VAIO brand, absolutely no one should be shocked by this decision.
The Reader digital storefront for purchasing e-book titles will be shut down as of next month in the U.S. and Canada. Owners of Sony Readers (I’m looking at you, dad) in those countries shouldn’t be worried about what happens to all their purchases, since Sony is generously migrating accounts and existing libraries intact to Kobo, which works on iOS and Android devices as well as Android hardware. The Kobo Android now will also ship pre-installed on Xperia devices as part of the arrangement.
Sony has yet to reveal exactly how users can switch their content over, but they’ll be sending an email to Reader account holders to detail the process ahead of the projected end of March dead date for the Reader store.
As for Reader hardware, it appears to have been doomed as far back as October last year, at least for the U.S. market, when the company removed the Reader section from its website entirely and listed existing models as discontinued. Moving e-book sales to a partner is probably a smart move, given its existing decision to pull away from that category of devices.
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